Halloween Bird Nest Candy Bowl!

I looove when companies like JoAnn Fabrics contact me to do projects with them. Especially holiday-themed ones. Especially holiday-themed ones where I have tons of freedom to do whatever I want. Freedom is my favorite. 

JoAnn's generously gave gift cards and the theme #SpookySpaces to lots of different bloggers and asked us to come up with a stand-out craft. I'm not really sure if mine stands out...? But I know that I liked the way it turned out! I was a little nervous about it because I'm not usually into the "spooky" things. I mean I walked into our local Halloween store the other day and almost literally RAN out because it was terrifying. (P.S. What happened to the sheet-ghosts and minnie mouse costumes that filled those stores when we were kids? Now it's like the set of a rated R movie! Dude! ...I digress.) 

I waited until we were on our way to JoAnn's (it's out of town for us) to decide what to make, because I live on the edge, and I came up with this little bird nest bowl! I wasn't sure if I would find everything I needed for it there, but I totally did which was awesome. They even had twigs that were already black. Sweet! Although you could totally spray paint your own.

Here's what I used for my bowl, minus the bird, who somehow didn't make it in the photo:

(All from JoAnn's except the bowl.)

• To get started you'll need about half a yard of black fabric. I used velvet, but you could use satin, cotton, whatev. Hot glue the center of the fabric to the inside bottom of the bowl.

• Fold the sides of fabric down over the outside of the bowl and glue on. You may want to trim your fabric up a little first.

•  Trim off any excess fabric and cover with a circle of felt.

•  Use hot glue to attach a layer of black feathers.

•  Glue tulle on, covering most of the bowl. Bunch it up in random places here and there until it looks right to you.

•  Then add a second layer of feathers. I used a different kind of feathers for the second layer to add a little dimension.

•  Then break off small sections of twigs and hot glue all around the bowl. Finish off with black sequins (or even sparkly beads!)

•  For the finishing touch, glue on a spooky black crow, à la Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. :O)

Use #spookyspaces to find the other awesome ideas bloggers have come up with. And for more Halloween ideas check out JoAnn's Creativity Made Simple page!

And enjoy a sweet 50% coupon to help you shop for any goodies you might need!

And to the sweethearts at JoAnn's: thanks. So much. This was seriously fun. :O)

Have fun with your spooky crafts, guys!! I'll be in touch soon with an update on how we're doing over here. Foster baby #2 that we had for three weeks is back with his regular foster mom now, so we're getting a little more sleep these days. (I didn't die!!)

Have a great start to your week! Yay, Mondays!!

Love you!

-Disney

P.S. Thanks so much to my dear friend Chris for letting my stage in her lovely home with glorious natural light! Life saver! :O)